Getting Out Of The Transit Hole

February 13, 1985

Former President Jimmy Carter was reported to have sent a memo to his transportation secretary questioning the amount of federal transit subsidies being spent on ``expensive holes in the ground.`` U.S. mass transit systems quickly lobbied down that threat, as well as a stronger one mounted four years later by the newly elected Ronald Reagan.

But the size of both the federal deficit and Mr. Reagan`s re-election plurality make it less likely the mass transit industry will win again.

The administration has proposed slashing federal subsidies to mass transit by 70 percent to help reduce the national deficit. The proposal would save about $2.4 billion a year at the federal level, but that number is illusory because fares and taxes at the local level would have to be increased to make up for at least some of the lost grants. Some transit systems are predicting dire consequences--including shutdowns and 50 percent fare hikes

--as a result of the shift in fiscal responsibility from the Washington to Main Street USA.

That is the ultimate result of the nation`s mass transit industry`s becoming overly dependent upon the federal dole in a relatively short time. The federal government only began providing substantial transit subsidies in 1974.

It is obvious that mass transit cannot be held harmless from the type of budget cutting that will be necessary to cut the federal deficit.

Congress ought immediately to eliminate federal operating subsidies that now cost $870 million a year and should also place a moratorium on the construction of any new rail transit systems. Los Angeles and Houston have been talking about building expensive new subways for years while inflation has driven the cost of those projects to astronomical levels. Congress also ought to reduce substantially the $250 million annual allotment that has enabled the Washington metropolitan area to build the most expensive subway system in history while New York and Chicago have trouble scraping together enough money to wash graffiti off buses.

The transit system here is in a far better position to cope with the proposed cuts than most other cities. Although the Chicago area now gets about $58 million a year in federal operating subsidies, the Chicago Transit Authority`s $50.5 million share accounts for only about 10 percent of its budget, contrasted to 40 percent in some other cities.

With eight years of warning, the nation`s transit managers can hardly claim they were caught by surprise by the proposed cuts.